The tone poem/ballet Amazonas, composed originally for orchestra and published in 1917, was transcribed for piano by Villa-Lobos himself and published in a new version in 1932. Like Uirapuru, Amazonas subtitled “Brazilian Indian ballet” first appeared within the context of the newly discovered “savage art,” which took European and American concert halls by storm. The first “appearance of music of Brazil on the world stage can be dated to 1917, when the Ballets russes of Sergei Diaghilev were in Rio de Janeiro.” Raul Villa-Lobos, the composer’s father, relates the story of Amazonas.

“A young Indian virgin, consecrated by the gods of the magic forests, had the custom of greeting the dawn and bathing in the waters of the Amazon. There she sported, calling on the sun and admiring her reflection in the waters of the river, proud in her primitive sensuality. Meanwhile the gods of the tropical winds breathed around her a gentle, perfumed breeze. Oblivious, she danced, surrendering herself to her pleasure like a simple child. Jealous and angered at this insult, the god of the winds carried the chaste perfume of the young girl to the profane region of the monsters. One of them picks up her scent from afar and, anxious to possess her, destroys everything before him, as he advances, unheard, towards her, gazing at her in ecstasy and desire. His image, however, is reflected by the sunlight on the grey shadow of the girl. Seeing her own shadow transformed, she rushes away, horrified, pursued by the monster into the abyss of her own desire.”

Critics have suggested that in its “stylistic originality, the ballet Amazonas signaled the emancipation of Brazilian art music from European influences, stressing the uniqueness of native Brazilian culture through an idealization of one of its greatest symbols, the mighty Amazon forest.” For Mário de Andrade, the ideological mentor of Brazilian nationalism, Amazonas was the emblem of a new Brazilian nationalist music, “written in the most daring and experimental language that Villa-Lobos had attempted so far.” It is a kaleidoscope in sound, full of rhythmic life and instrumental virtuosity. Villa-Lobos even invented a new instrument, the violinophone, featuring a horn attached to a violin. The orchestra, in the words of a critic, “crawls painfully forward, breaking branches and felling trees, tonalities and the traditional rules of composition.” As Villa-Lobos wrote, “almost all melodic material of this work was based on indigenous themes of the Amazon collected by the author. The harmonic and rhythmic atmosphere and the atmosphere created by the timbres imitate the forests, rivers, waterfalls, birds, fish and wild animals, the native forest dwellers, the caboclos (mestizos) and the legends of the Amazon basin. Its principal melodic motives are those that represent the themes of invocation, of the surprise of the mirage, the tracking and gallop of legendary monsters in the Amazon River, of the seduction, the voluptuousness and sensuality of the Indian Priestess, of the heroic songs of Indian warriors and of the rock precipice.”